ProRodeo Sports News - October 29, 2021

three grandkids with twins on the way and you’ve got a completely full day, every day. The hectic schedule might be annoying to some folks, but Gjermundson loves what he’s doing. “It’s not like a job because I enjoy it,” he laughed. The hustle he displays at 62

“I slid in there in one of the bottom holes and had the kind of Finals that everyone dreams of. I won four go’s and placed in three more and won $80,000,” he said. Gjermundson finished the 1994 season third in the world standings. Since retiring for good in 1999, Gjermundson has stayed connected to the sport in several ways including through his involvement with Home on the Range.

“It doesn’t seem like forty, that’s for sure. It seems like it wasn’t very long ago. . . . It was a big learning year and to have it go so well that you come out as the champion after a whole season was just amazing.” – BRAD GJERMUNDSON

is really nothing new. Back in his rodeoing days, Gjermundson stayed busy too. It’s been four decades since Gjermundson won his first of four PRCAWorld Championships in the saddle bronc riding. After the first in 1981, he picked up a Reserve World title in 1982 before reeling off three straight championship seasons from 1983-1985. He was the Reserve Champ again in 1988. “It doesn’t seem like forty, that’s for sure,” Gjermundson chuckled. “It seems like it wasn’t very long ago. “A lot of good things have happened in rodeo since then.” After capturing the college championship in 1980 and being named the PRCA Rookie of the Year, Gjermundson hit the road hard in 1981. “I just remember that it was my first full year and being able to go to all of them,” Gjermundson said. “There were no limits, you could go to as many as you wanted, and I went to 125 rodeos that year.” “If there was $1,000 added at a rodeo back then, you didn’t pass it up,” he said. Gjermundson won $64,408 that year, setting a record for earnings. “It was a big learning year and to have it go so well that you come out as the champion after a whole season was just amazing.” Gjermundson stayed on the road hard for several more years. “From 1981 to 1985,

The group’s largest fundraiser each year is the Home on the Range Champions Ride Saddle Bronc Match in Sentinel Butte, N.D., a stop on the PRCA Xtreme Broncs Tour. “The bronc match is their major fundraiser for the year,” Gjermundson said. “The ranch changes lives; they often have speakers, people who’ve come through the program and now own businesses. “It’s gratifying to know there is a need and that this program is working to fill it.” Gjermundson also lends his name and help to an XBroncs events in Newtown, N.D., each October but he doesn’t get the itch to enter up. “I got over that fairly soon, but it was hard to walk away,” he said. “But I’m still involved a little bit.” Gjermundson notes the improvements across the sport since he hung up his saddle 20-plus years ago. “Rodeo’s in a good spot,” he said. “There’s a lot of young guys out there with a lot of talent. And they sub out more for stock. At the big rodeos, they’re screened so you know you’re getting on quality horses and your percentage of being able to win every time you nod your head has gone up.”

that’s the only thing I did,” he said. “In 1986 I broke my leg and that took me out for nine or ten months.” Although he’d qualified to the 1986 National Finals Rodeo, the injury kept him from competing. He went back to the NFR in 1987 and 1988, collecting his second average win in the latter, before slowing his rodeo schedule down. “My wife ( Jackie) and I got married in 1984 and we bought a ranch in 1987 and we were starting a family,” he said. Son Kane was born in 1986 and daughters Hali and Jori followed in 1989 and 1991. After that, Gjermundson only rodeoed in the winter and decided after that whether to rodeo the rest of the season. In 1994, he won a little across the winter but did well at Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days, so he decided to hit the road hard and qualified for his final NFR.

Photo courtesy Brad Gjermundson Gjermundson with his wife Jackie at his daughter Hali and son-in-law Bridger Bohmbach’s wedding. Also pictured is daughter Jori and son-in-law Garrett Peterson, son Kane, daughter-in-law Justene and grandchildren Hollynn and Jet.

ProRodeo Sports News 10/29/2021

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